Mystery Melange

The Capital Crime conference announced the shortlists for the 2020 Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards. The awards are a celebration of the crime and thriller genre and recognize excellence in film and television as well as books. The shortlists were decided by Capital Crime’s advisory board of authors, industry leaders and reviewers, but it's readers who will have the final say on who wins in each category. This is the second year for the awards, with authors Ian Rankin, Oyinkan Braithewaite, and C L Taylor among the 2019 winners. Shots Magazine has a list of all the finalists in the various categories.

The Crime Writers Association (CWA) Debut Dagger Writing Competition 2021 has opened for entries. Created in 1955, the Daggers are the oldest and among the most regarded awards in the genre, and for over two decades the CWA has been encouraging new writing with its Debut Dagger competition for unpublished writers. Submissions are judged by a panel of top crime editors and agents, and all shortlisted entries then sent to UK agents and publishers of crime fiction. Anyone is eligible who hasn't had a full-length novel published by a traditional publisher and who, at the time of the competition closing, doesn't have a contract with a publisher or literary agent. (HT again to Shots Magazine)

Although the traditional week of in-person gatherings will not take place this year, the Kentucky Book Festival will carry on the celebration of reading, writing and all things bookish in the Bluegrass State with a virtual lineup of author discussions. Events of note to crime fiction fans include special guest John Grisham discussing his latest book, A Time for Mercy with best-selling author Kim Edwards, and a panel with mystery/thriller authors David Bell, Rea Frey, Dana Ridenour, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins talking about what it takes to write the perfect crime.

Obscure works by Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie were published this week, but it might not be what you think. Both involve humor, as with Chandler's rarely seen "Advice to an Employer, a list of suggestions for how you can ruin the day for those stuck on your payroll," and an amusing Hercule Poirot Christmas story from Christie. Both pieces appeared in the new issue of Strand Magazine, and managing editor Andrew Gulli explained, "We decided early on that we needed to publish an issue that will provide something light-hearted for our readers."

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder newsletter is out with a report that William Hjortsberg, the New York City-born Montana novelist who died in 2017, has a brand-new book—Angel’s Inferno—due out in Britain at the end of this month. The novel, which is a sequel to the author's Edgar-nominated Falling Angel (the basis for the classic cult film Angel Heart), is being published posthumously by No Exit Press using the author's edits and notes he was working on up until his death. (HT to The Rap Sheet.)

Some sad news from the crime fiction magazine world, as BJ Bourg announced the end of Flash Bang Mysteries, with the Fall/October 2020 the last issue. BJ worked in law enforcement for over 25 years before turning his hand to writing crime stories and had previously edited the 'zines Mouth Full of Bullets and BJ Bourg's Mystery Mag. Flash Bang Mysteries was co-edited with BJ's son, Brandon Bourg, since its inception in October 2015. I had the pleasure of working with BJ on stories for both Mouth Full of Bullets and Flash Bang Mysteries, and here's hoping he'll be back with new periodical projects in the future.

Apparently, although most of the Sherlock Holmes canon is now in the public domain, you can still be sued if you write Holmes smiling. The Holmes Estate has sued the author of the Enola Holmes books (as well as publisher Penguin Random House) and the new Netflix movie based on the book series, claiming the brilliant detective didn’t exhibit his friendlier side until Conan Doyle published his final 10 stories, which are still under copyright. This would basically mean that the Conan Doyle Estate still owns Sherlock Holmes’s "warmth and emotion." Penguin Random House and series author Nancy Springer are fighting back, and they may have a case:  Springer’s first Enola Holmes novel was published in 2006 to critical acclaim (including an Edgar Award in 2007), nearly fifteen years before this suit was filed. Others have noted that the timing of the lawsuit is also suspect since the final Sherlock Holmes story authored by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was published in 1927, meaning that in two years time – 2022 – none of his works or characters will be subject to copyright laws.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "A Love Story" by Tom Barlow.

In the Q&A roundup, Benjamin Black, a/k/a John Banville, chatted with the New York Times about why he chose the Black pseudonym for his crime novels, and why he's decided to keep writing those novels but under his Banville name; Indie Crime Scene interviewed E.A Aymar, author of They're Gone (written under his pseudonym E.A. Barres); Writers Who Kill spoke with M. E. Browning, a retired police captain and author of Shadow Ridge, the first book in the new Jo Wyatt mystery series; and Author Interviews snagged Robert Dugoni, author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, about his writing process and influences.